Buffy: The Drabble Collection
by babies-stole-my-dingo
Summary: Short vignettes, mainly hundred-word drabbles. Stars various characters in various situations, written for various challenges.
1. Let's Dance

  
_Title:_ **Let's Dance**   
_Fandom:_ Buffy the Vampire Slayer  
_Rating:_ PG  
_Words:_ 100  
_Disclaimer:_ Not mine, they're Whedon's. sob  
_Written for:_ LJ Community Open On Sunday"s David Bowie Song Title challenge.  
_Notes:_ Inspired by "Let's Dance."

* * *

Smoking a cigarette behind a crypt, Spike watched surreptitiously as Buffy took out another fledge. Graceful as a swallow in flight, she tumbled and spun through the air, kicked and punched the newborn vampire into submission, then staked it with a flourish.

He stepped out from behind the mausoleum, applauding, not entirely ironically. "Nice moves, Slayer."

Her lip curled. "Spike. Spying on me again?"

"If you like. How about you and me have a go? I'll wager you haven't had a worthy opponent in a good long while."

She allowed a tiny smile to tug at her lips. "Let's dance."


	2. Other Dangerous Things

  
_Title:_ **Other Dangerous Things**  
_Fandom:_ Buffy the Vampire Slayer  
_Rating:_ G  
_Words:_ 100  
_Disclaimer:_ Not mine, they're Whedon's. sob  
_Written for:_ LJ Community Challenge100's #35 "Choose Your Destination" challenge.  
_Notes:_ Willow and Xander have a close call before Buffy arrives in Sunnydale.

* * *

Willow Rosenberg and Xander Harris stepped out of the Bronze. "Walk you home?" he asked gallantly.

"Sure!" Strolling past an alley, they heard a "mew," causing her to stop in her tracks. "Kitty?"

"Will, maybe we shouldn't."

"It sounded like a little kitten. It shouldn't be out all by itself in the big bad city. There, there are bigger cats, and dogs, and cars, and other dangerous things."

"But, Will, chances are you won't even be able to find it."

"Okay." She went on, reluctantly.

In the alley, a pair of large red eyes blinked in a fanged, frustrated face.


	3. Skunk Demon

  
_Title:_ **Skunk Demon**  
_Fandom:_ Buffy the Vampire Slayer  
_Rating:_ PG  
_Words:_ 100, down from 148. Ouch.  
_Disclaimer:_ Not mine, they're Whedon's. sob  
_Written for:_ LJ Community Wordoftheday100's "Mephitic" challenge.  
_Notes:_ Heh. My inner biologist was all over this one. Everyone knows that the scientific name of the common skunk is _Mephitis mephitis_, right? Takes place sometime in Season 5, after Spike and Buffy have formed their uneasy alliance.

* * *

"Ugh!" Buffy decapitated the demon, but not before it sprayed her. Tears pouring from her blinded eyes, she stumbled to Spike's crypt and staggered inside.

"Bloody hell, Slayer!" Spike leaped across the room as the stink overwhelmed the small space. A grin crept across his face. "You found a Mephitic Demon?"

"I guess so," Buffy said faintly.

"Well, we'll have to bury your clothes and give you a tomato juice bath. It's the only way."

Buffy whined and started stripping. Spike's grin widened. This wasn't exactly the way he wanted to see the Slayer naked...but he would take it.


	4. This Cannot Stand

  
_Title:_ **This Cannot Stand**  
_Fandom:_ Buffy the Vampire Slayer  
_Rating:_ PG  
_Words:_ 100  
_Disclaimer:_ Not mine, they're Whedon's. sob  
_Written for:_ LJ Community TV100's "Evil Incarnate" challenge

* * *

Buffy's front door opened, but she was unable to tear her horrified eyes away from the abomination on her television screen. "Good God," Spike said, sitting on the couch. "That is truly disturbing."

"We have to do something about it," Buffy answered. "I'm the Slayer. It's my job, after all."

"I'll help. Even I can't stand the thought of something that evil on this plane of existence. It needs to be sent back to whatever hellpit it came from."

They rummaged through the weapons chest as the theme song played. "I love you, you love me, we're a happy family..."

* * *

**Author's Note:** I have a toddler. He doesn't know Barney exists--and there's a reason for that. 


	5. African Night Flight

  
_Title:_ **African Night Flight**   
_Fandom:_ Buffy the Vampire Slayer  
_Rating:_ PG  
_Words:_ 100  
_Disclaimer:_ Not mine, they're Whedon's. sob  
_Written for:_ LJ Community Open On Sunday's David Bowie Song Title challenge.  
_Notes:_ Inspired by the title "African Night Flight."

* * *

"We will return your soul."

And, God, it burned. Spike had been burned before, by the sun, by fire, by holy water...but it had never felt like this. This felt like it was going to consume him from the inside out. They were all within him now, screaming, whimpering, begging. Sometimes he'd hear a whisper among the cacophony. Those were the worst. "Please. Please don't," the voice would breathe. But he had.

Stumbling away from the African cave, he thought that if he could just run fast and far enough, he might be able to get away from them.


	6. Cold Necessity

  
_Title:_ **Cold Necessity**  
_Fandom:_ Buffy the Vampire Slayer  
_Rating:_ PG-13 for murder  
_Words:_ 100  
_Disclaimer:_ Not mine, they're Whedon's. sob  
_Written for:_ LJ Community Challenge100's #32 "Every Inch a King" challenge.  
_Notes:_ Inspired by the following Shakespeare quote: _As flies to wanton boys are we to the gods; / They kill us for their sport._ (Gloucester, King Lear, 4.1.36-37)

* * *

Glory's singleminded quest for Dawn, her Key, had nearly destroyed them all. This world, and its inhabitants, were wholly insignificant to her. But, hero that she was, Buffy still hadn't been able to bring herself to kill Ben, deeming him an innocent. However, Giles had done morally ambiguous things before. He was no stranger to expediency. He also knew that there was no possible way that Ben had been completely harmless, that something in him must have welcomed the Hellgod's interference in his life.

And as his hand and fingers closed off Ben's airway, Giles felt nothing. Nothing at all.


	7. Doorway

  
_Title: _**Doorway**  
_Fandom: _Buffy the Vampire Slayer  
_Rating:_ G  
_Words:_ 100  
_Disclaimer:_ Not mine, they're Whedon's. sob  
_Written for:_ The LJ Community Open on Sunday's doorway drabble challenge  
_Note(s):_ Spike/Buffy, set during Buffy, Season 6, "Dead Things"

* * *

His crypt was always open to her. She realized that. And yet...she hesitated. Leaning on the cold stone for a moment, touching it with a gloved hand, feeling his presence as he came toward her. She knew when he pressed his body against the door, knew when he put his hand on the same spot hers rested on. But this--this was wrong. All kinds of wrong. And they were both aware of that uncomfortable fact. He wouldn't stop it. That meant she had to. 

She walked away into the gloom of the graveyard. Not tonight, Spike. Not tonight.


	8. A Pale Imitation

_Title: _**A Pale Imitation**  
_Fandom: _Buffy the Vampire Slayer  
_Rating:_ G  
_Words:_ 100  
_Disclaimer:_ Not mine, they're Whedon's. sob  
Written for: The LJ Community Open on Sunday's eating and/or food drabble challenge  
_Note(s):_ Takes place in Season 4, sometime after "Doomed," when the Scoobies have decided that Spike is harmless and turn him loose.

* * *

The kid behind the counter had no idea how close to death he might have been, if things were different. All he saw was another customer. Sunnydale had its share of odd-looking people, so this guy dressed in black, with the nice duster and the platinum hair, didn't really stand out. However, if the boy could have seen under the facade of humanity that covered the seemingly ordinary patron, he probably would have screamed like a girl and wet his pants.

But he couldn't. He plastered on a fake smile and handed Spike his order. "Here's your Happy Meal, sir."

* * *

**Note:** Spike's remark in "Becoming Part 2" about "Happy Meals with legs" brought this one on. I've always thought that phrase was pretty funny...but chipped Spike would have to settle for legless Happy Meals, wouldn't he? 


	9. According to His Nature

  
_Title:_**According to His Nature**  
_Fandom:_ Buffy the Vampire Slayer  
_Rating:_ PG for general ickiness  
_Words:_ 100  
_Disclaimer:_ Not mine, they're Whedon's. sob  
_Written for:_ LJ Community Challenge100's #36 "From the Shadows" supporting character challenge.  
_Notes:_ Takes place after Buffy beats the crap out of Spike in Ep#113 "Dead Things."

* * *

Walking by the police station, Clem hurried homeward to beat the sunrise. His head was suddenly pulled toward the alley by the strong scent of blood. A friend's blood.

As he tended Spike in his crypt that day, he realized that his injuries were so serious that he might not recover without some special help. Expression resolved, he went hunting behind the Espresso Pump. Spike needed blood, and animal blood wasn't good enough. The caffeine was a bonus, he thought grimly to himself.

After all, he was a demon. People shouldn't be very surprised if he acted like one sometimes.


	10. Reflections

  
_Title:_ **Reflections**  
_Fandom:_ Buffy the Vampire Slayer  
_Rating:_ G  
_Words:_ 100  
_Disclaimer:_ Not mine, they're Whedon's. sob  
_Written for:_ LJ Community Open on Sunday's Open Challenge  
_Notes:_ Since it was an "open" week, I picked a theme from before I joined the community: Reflections. This takes place in Season 5 or 6, I think.

* * *

"Spike."

"Slayer."

I picked at my spicy wings, appetite suddenly gone. Her back to the bottles and the bartender, she didn't see what I saw in the mirror. The beautiful blonde hair cascading down her back, her perfect elbows resting on the bar, while she surveyed the Bronze...alone. Nothing beside her but a bottle of beer and some chicken that may or may not have been hers.

I wasn't part of her world. The distance between us was never brought home to me more than at that one blinding moment of realization.

That didn't mean I wouldn't keep trying.


	11. Photograph

  
_Title:_ **Photograph**  
_Fandom:_ Buffy the Vampire Slayer  
_Rating:_ PG  
_Words:_ 100  
_Disclaimer:_ Not mine, they're Whedon's. sob  
_Written for:_ LJ Community Challenge100's #10 "Snapshot" challenge.  
_Notes:_ Xander finds a picture he forgot he had.

* * *

Xander placed things from his wallet on the table as he gave it its annual tidying, but he suddenly sat back, stunned by what he'd found between his credit cards. A forgotten photograph of Anya smiled up at him, and a myriad of memories came crashing down. Her initial attempts to adjust to being human. Her inappropriate, endearing literalness. Bunny fear. Ruthless capitalism. Her utter bewilderment at Joyce's death.

Leaving her at the altar. The horrid consequences.

Reconciliation. Holding her the night before the last battle.

He picked up the phone. "Andrew? Tell me about how Anya saved you again."


	12. Rivalries

  
_Title:_ **Rivalries**  
_Fandom:_ Buffy the Vampire Slayer  
_Rating:_ PG because Spike has a potty brain  
_Words:_ 100  
_Disclaimer:_ Not mine; they belong to Whedon. Just borrowing.  
_Written for:_ LJ Community Open on Sunday's "Unintentional Confession" challenge  
_Notes:_ Spike and Dawn watch a soccer game...

* * *

"Goal!" the TV announcer shouted. "Arsenal makes a last-second goal to win the game, three to two..."

Spike growled and threw his beer across the crypt in frustration. Bloody hell! Manchester United had lost again. Then his subconscious picked up Dawn's involuntary squeal. "Somethin' to say, Niblet?" he asked, his voice sour.

Dawn looked like a toddler who had been caught with her hand in the cookie jar. "Oh, nothing," she said, too quickly.

"You were rooting for Arsenal, weren't you?" Spike said in disbelief.

"Well, yeah. The guys on that team are way cuter than the guys on United's..."


	13. Training Session

  
_Title:_ **Training Session**  
_Fandom:_ Buffy the Vampire Slayer   
_Rating:_ G  
_Words:_ 100, down from 123  
_Disclaimer:_ Not mine, they're Whedon's. sob  
_Written for:_ LJ Community Open on Sunday's "Training" challenge.  
_Notes:_ Takes place after the **"Rivalries"** drabble. This is what happened afterwards. I'm noticing a dangerous trend here with my Spike and Dawn stories. And yes, you can clicker train a cat. I haven't done it myself, but Karen Pryor has a book on the subject, which you can Google.

* * *

Spike eyed his poker winnings, a Siamese kitten cleaning her face on his sarcophagus. He referred to the cat training manual. "Click, treat, eh?" Pressing the clicker, he tossed a piece of ham to her. She devoured it, looking for more. Click, treat, click, treat. By the end of the session, she definitely associated the two.

Two weeks later, Dawn walked into his crypt and was shocked to see a table setting, with napkin, knife, and fork...and a kitten purring placidly on the plate. "Spike!" she shouted, outraged.

He smirked. "That's what you get for rooting for Arsenal, Niblet."


	14. Forgotten Birthday

  
_Title:_ **Forgotten Birthday**  
_Fandom:_ Buffy the Vampire Slayer  
_Rating:_ PG  
_Words:_ 100  
_Disclaimer:_ Not mine, they're Whedon's. sob  
_Written for:_ LJ Community Challenge100's "Birthday" challenge.

* * *

Alone in her motel room, Faith scowled at her Hostess cupcake, a single candle burning on top. Forgotten again. Not that she was bitter. Oh, hell, no. This was so completely typical. She was wanted as long as she was useful, and then they set her aside until they needed her again. The Scooby gang was an insular little clique, and she knew she'd never fit in. B overshadowed everything, and Faith was nothing more than an inconvenient afterthought.

"Happy birthday to me," she muttered, blowing out the candle and setting another brick in the wall between her and them.


	15. Friendship

  
_Title:_ **Friendship**   
_Fandom:_ Buffy the Vampire Slayer  
_Rating:_ G  
_Words:_ 100  
_Disclaimer:_ Not mine, they're Whedon's. sob  
_Written for:_ LJ Community TV100's "Making Friends" challenge.  
_Notes:_ Joyce thinks about Spike in Season 5.

* * *

I keep some blood in the back of the fridge, and a supply of the little marshmallows he likes so much. Buffy's disapproval is palpable when she knows he's been here, but I can't help treating him like a person. In fact...I don't think he'd bite me, or Dawn, or even Buffy, if he ever got the chip out. I honestly doubt he has it in him anymore--to hurt one of us, at any rate. Any more than I have it in me to consider him a monster.

I think I might be the only friend he has.


	16. Sacrifice

  
_Title:_ **Sacrifice**  
_Fandom:_ Buffy the Vampire Slayer  
_Rating:_ PG  
_Words:_ 100  
_Disclaimer:_ Not mine, they're Whedon's. sob  
_Written for:_ LJ Community Challenge100's #7 "Sacrifice" challenge.  
_Notes:_ Takes place during BtVS 7:22 "Chosen." Spike's POV.

* * *

He'd been willing to sacrifice lots of things over the years. When Dru had been ill, Angel's life was forfeit. To get his Dark Princess back, he'd risked the wrath of the Slayer...and later, to get Buffy, he would have been almost happy to watch Dru turn to dust. Even his self-respect, ground to powder under Buffy's boot, was worth it, if she'd just smile at him. His sanity had been the ransom for his soul.

Now? He was sacrificing his very unlife. And as he burned, he thought to himself that it was, after all, a fitting end.


	17. Things Change

  
_Title:_ **Things Change**  
_Fandom:_ Buffy the Vampire Slayer  
_Rating:_ PG  
_Words:_ 100  
_Disclaimer:_ Not mine, they're Whedon's. sob  
_Written for:_ LJ Community Challenge100's #19 "You Say That Things Change, My Dear" challenge.  
_Notes:_ Inspired by the following Tori Amos lyric: _When you gonna love you as much as I do?_ Spike's POV during Season 6, sometime after "Wrecked."

* * *

She's off, again. When the sodding hell will she embrace all the facets of her Slayerness? The ancient shamans had seen that, to fight the darkness, their Slayer needed to embody the dark. It's not something to be fought against, but channeled. 

I can help her with that, if she'll let me. God knows I've been channeling my dark side for the better part of two years. But no. She hates me, hates herself for being with me, and won't ever accept my aid, no matter how often I tell her I love her.

And that's really very bloody sad.


	18. Crushed

  
_Title:_ **Crushed**  
_Fandom:_ Buffy the Vampire Slayer  
_Rating:_ G  
_Words:_ 100  
_Disclaimer:_ Not mine, they're Whedon's. sob  
_Written for:_ LJ Community Challenge100's #11 "POV Challenge"--write from a lesser character's point of view.  
_Notes:_ Dru's thoughts after the events of BtVS Episode 92 "Crush," with spoilers for later seasons.

* * *

My William is filled with the Slayer. I came back to save him, but it was all for naught. Oh, yes, he's still a bad doggie, but he's a bad doggie who wants to be good. The zappy thing that the men in white put in his head isn't all to blame. The Slayer had got her claws in long before that.

His future is all vaporish. The pixies and stars have whispered odd things to me. Something about a spark, and burning, and a...smurf? I don't understand. I hope he'll be all right. I fret so about him.


	19. Bright of Day, Dark of Night

  
_Title:_ **Bright Day, Dark Night**  
_Fandom:_ Buffy the Vampire Slayer  
_Rating:_ G  
_Words:_ 100  
_Disclaimer:_ Not mine, they're Whedon's. sob  
_Written for:_ LJ Community Challenge100's #5 "Bright of Day, Dark of Night" challenge

* * *

Sunnydale residents were a clueless lot. All that stood between them and things that went bump in the dark was one girl. As they went about their business during the day, they were oblivious to the fact that vampires and demons would have overrun their town long ago, if not for the Slayer, plying her trade at night.

And that was only right, Buffy thought. Protecting them from the knowledge that the monsters under the bed were real was her job, and she enjoyed knowing that she was so good at it that the townsfolk had no idea she existed.


	20. Moment of Decision

  
_Title:_ **Moment of Decision**  
_Fandom:_ Buffy the Vampire Slayer  
_Rating:_ PG  
_Words:_ 100  
_Disclaimer:_ Not mine, they're Whedon's. sob  
_Written for:_ LJ Community Challenge100's "all is not lost" drabble challenge  
_Notes:_ Spike's thoughts directly after the attempted rape in "Seeing Red."

* * *

What in the hell had I been thinking? Well. That was the problem, wasn't it? Thinking hadn't had anything to do with tonight.

Not a monster, not a man. This sodding chip has made me weak--vulnerable to Buffy. But my demon makes it impossible for her to love me. And after tonight, she'll never trust me again.

Unless.

I've heard about this demon. In Africa. He can do things. He can make me what I was. She'd have to love me then, right? If I did that for her?

All is not lost. Not by a bloody long shot.


	21. Yen

_Title:_ **Yen**  
_Fandom:_ Buffy the Vampire Slayer  
_Rating:_ PG-13, for bloodplay  
_Disclaimer:_ Not mine; they're Whedon's. sob  
_Written for:_ The Open On Sunday LJ Community--go to , find the word of the day for your birthday, and work it in somehow. I found five words, and worked in three of them--"redoubt" (a stronghold); "malodorous" (having a bad odor); and "yen" (a strong desire or inclination).  
_Notes(s):_ Riley's POV, before and during the events of "Into the Woods."

* * *

I'll never scale the redoubt of Buffy's heart. I'm solid, comfortable. She likes me, but love? No. Spike is right; she needs some monster in her man. And I'm too tame.

So I flirt with it. Going to that malodorous vampire bordello, letting the girls bite me just enough to get dizzy. After a time, it's become something I need, not just something I want. Some night, I might let one bite my neck. Why not? Buffy did.

And maybe, just maybe, if I let it go too far once...she might see just what a monster I can be.


	22. Rebellion

  
_Title:_ **Rebellion**   
_Fandom:_ Buffy the Vampire Slayer  
_Rating:_ G  
_Words:_ 100  
_Disclaimer:_ Not mine, they're Whedon's. sob  
_Written for:_ LJ Community Wordoftheday100's "Dictum" challenge.  
_Notes:_ Takes place during BtVS 3:21 "Graduation Day Part 1."

* * *

"You can't turn your back on the Council," Wesley said.

Can't I? Is this the same Council that turned Kendra into a robot? The same Council that didn't let us know that Gwendolyn Post wasn't really Faith's new Watcher? The same Council that allowed my mother to be kidnaped by a crazy vampire and made Giles drug me? The same Council that botched Faith's "arrest" so badly? The same Council that fired Giles? And now they're not going to help Angel?

This latest dictum means less than nothing to me. I can't turn my back on them?

Just watch me.


	23. Lineage

_Title:_ **Lineage**  
_Fandom:_ Buffy the Vampire Slayer  
_Rating:_ PG, for general creepiness.  
_Disclaimer:_ Not mine; they're Whedon's. sob  
_Written for:_ A challenge issued by the Open On Sunday LJ Community, to wit: Title Swap.  
_Notes:_ Takes place anytime after Spike got his soul back and is in the land of the unliving. This was my first ever drabble.

* * *

There was an old woman who lived in a shoe; she had so many children, she didn't know what to do.

The Master would be cross with me for calling him an "old woman"--but he did have lots of children. Grandmummy was one. Daddy was hers. I'm his. And Sweet William is mine.

Well, the House of Aurelius lies splintered now, and burnt. The Master and Grandmummy are ashes. Daddy and William are spoilt. I'm the only one left, really.

The House, the tragic House, with nobody in it; shingles broken and black....

Perhaps I should start mending it.

* * *

**Author's Note:** The reference to the "tragic House" is from Joyce Kilmer's "The House with Nobody in It," which my mother-in-law pointed me toward. That's not mine either and I used it with utmost respect--please don't sue. 


	24. Stuff of Myth

  
_Title:_ **The Stuff of Myth**  
_Fandom:_ Buffy the Vampire Slayer  
_Rating:_ PG for offscreen violence.  
_Words:_ 100  
_Disclaimer:_ Not mine, they're Whedon's. sob  
_Written for:_ LJ Community Challenge100's #17 "Mythological Element" challenge.  
_Notes:_ Willow and Xander have an adventure.

* * *

"Oh, look, a rainbow!" Willow said. "Let's find the end of it--maybe there's a pot of gold."

Xander raised his eyebrow skeptically, but, hey, this was Sunnydale. Anything was possible. And amazingly enough, there it was...and the legendary pot of gold as well. Excited, they ran to it and began sifting through the shiny coins.

"I can buy magic supplies!"

"I can move out of the basement!"

"Ye think so, do ye?" an infuriated voice behind them cried.

Ten minutes later, a disheveled Xander gasped, "I thought there was no such thing as leprechauns."

"Not anymore," Willow answered sorrowfully.


	25. Trust

  
_Title:_ **Trust**  
_Fandom:_ Buffy the Vampire Slayer  
_Rating:_ G  
_Words:_ 100  
_Disclaimer:_ Not mine, they're Whedon's. sob  
_Written for:_ LJ Community Challenge100's #38 "Underneath" challenge.  
_Notes:_ Takes place while the First is holding Spike prisoner in the basement, Buffy Season 7.

* * *

Shackled to the wall in the school basement, Spike could only hang there and take the abuse that the First dished out through its surrogates. But he was able to reach inside himself and grasp something that was stronger than Evil, stronger than pain.

Hope.

Buffy believed in him. She thought he was a good man. Even after all he'd done, after all the people he'd killed, she still trusted him. He held that hope with all the strength he had left. The First couldn't touch that; he wouldn't let it.

She would come for him. He knew she would.


	26. They Earned It

_Title:_ **They Earned It**  
_Fandom:_ Buffy the Vampire Slayer  
_Rating:_ PG-13  
_Disclaimer:_ Not mine; they're Whedon's. sob  
_Notes:_ For the Open On Sunday LiveJournal Community: Write a drabble based on one of the seven deadly sins (pride, envy, anger, gluttony, lust, sloth, or greed), or on one of the seven cardinal virtues (faith, hope, charity/love, justice, prudence, fortitude, or temperance). I picked "Justice"...sort of.

* * *

"Vengeance." It was such a strong word for what she did. She didn't deliver vengeance. She delivered justice. All those poor, scorned women out there, crying out for her services. The men deserved whatever she did. These frat boys had made a damned game of ridiculing that poor girl! They needed to die for that. They needed to feel exactly what she had felt--the terror, the humiliation. The Grimslaw demon hadn't done anything different to them than they'd done to the girl.

At least, that's what Anyanka told herself as she scrubbed and scrubbed the blood off her hands.


	27. Close Call

  
_Title:_ **Close Call**   
_Fandom:_ Buffy the Vampire Slayer  
_Rating:_ PG-13  
_Words:_ 100  
_Disclaimer:_ Not mine, they're Whedon's. _sob_  
_Written for:_ LJ Community Challenge100's "Rewriting History" challenge.  
_Notes:_ Takes place during Season 3's "Bad Girls."

* * *

After their battle with the Eliminati, it was only natural for Buffy to instinctively seize the hand that clutched her shoulder and throw its owner against a dumpster. Faith pounced.

Barely in time, she heard Buffy's cry: "Faith, no!" Her stake stopped a millimeter from the man's chest. Realizing what she'd almost done, she collapsed against the wall, shaking.

"Jeez, B...I just about...I nearly..."

Buffy put her arm around her. "But you didn't. It's okay. It's okay."

Allan was gasping. "Grabbing Slayers, bad idea." He composed himself. "Um, girls? I have some information you might be interested in..."


	28. Every Night

  
_Title:_ **Every Night I Save You**   
_Fandom:_ Buffy the Vampire Slayer  
_Rating:_ PG-13  
_Words:_ 200  
_Disclaimer:_ Not mine, they're Whedon's. _sob_  
_Inspired by:_ LJ Community Challenge100's "Rewriting History" challenge.  
_Notes:_ Takes place during BtVS 5:22 "Gift." What if the fight between Spike and Doc had gone a little differently? Double drabble.

* * *

"I don't smell a soul anywhere on you. Why do you even care?"

"I made a promise to a lady."

"Oh?" Doc shot his tongue out at Spike, who ducked as it zipped past. But as it retracted, Spike grabbed it, wrapped it around his hand, and yanked the surprised little demon towards him. He brought his knee up and slammed it into Doc's face, then hammered him a couple of times with his free fist. Doc hadn't given up, however; grabbing Spike's duster in both hands, he gave a fierce shove with both legs, pushing him off the platform.

He'd momentarily forgotten that Spike still had a grip on his tongue. He was abruptly reminded. As Dawn's scream followed Spike down, Doc was pulled with him. With catlike quickness, Spike reeled him in and whipped him around so he cushioned his fall when they smashed into the ground. Doc wasn't much of a cushion, and Spike broke several bones when he hit--but he was in better shape than his erstwhile enemy, dead for good this time.

A short while later, soft hands caressed his face. "Spike?" Buffy's voice. "You did it. You saved her. You saved us all."


	29. Lonely Heart

  
_Title:_ **Lonely Heart**   
_Fandom:_ Buffy the Vampire Slayer  
_Rating:_ G  
_Words:_ 100  
_Disclaimer:_ Not mine, they're Whedon's. sob  
_Written for:_ LJ Community Open On Sunday's 80's Challenge.  
_Notes:_ Inspired by the song "Owner of a Lonely Heart" by Yes, the #8 song of 1984. Buffy's POV, sometime in Season 6.

* * *

Spike loves me.

No matter how much I deny it, I know he does. He's proved it often enough, before and after Glory. He protected Dawn, almost with his unlife, he patrolled when I was dead, and he helped my friends. He didn't have to do any of that. But he did, because he loves me.

But I can't let myself love him back, can't let him in. Love just hurts way too damned much. I loved Angel. I loved Riley. Look where it got me.

Loneliness is numbing, but it hurts less than loving and getting your heart shattered.


	30. The More Things Change

  
_Title:_ **The More Things Change...**  
_Fandom:_ Buffy the Vampire Slayer  
_Rating:_ PG  
_Words:_ 100  
_Disclaimer:_ Not mine, they're Whedon's. sob  
_Written for:_ LJ Community Challenge100's #12 "Reconciliation" challenge: Take a canon relationship that was torn apart, and get those characters back together.  
_Notes:_ I've always liked Oz, and Willow changed her orientation once already, so...

* * *

Willow sat morosely at a table in some bar, sipping at...whatever drink it was she'd ordered. The breakup with Kennedy had been predictably awful, and a week later she still felt horrible.

"Hey."

Her head snapped up. "Oz! How did...where did you...Hi!"

"May I?"

"Oh, sure! Uh, gay now, you know." She wanted that in the open immediately. Misconceptions were of the bad, and she didn't want him to think anything had changed since they'd last seen each other.

"Yeah. About that..."

Snuggling with him later that night, she reflected that being bi was going to have its perks.


	31. Out, Brief Candle!

  
_Title:_ **Out, Brief Candle!**  
_Fandom:_ Buffy the Vampire Slayer  
_Rating:_ PG  
_Words:_ 100  
_Disclaimer:_ Not mine, they're Whedon's. sob  
_Written for:_ LJ Community Challenge100's #1 "Shakespeare" challenge.  
_Notes:_ Inspired by the following quote: _Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow / Creeps in this petty pace from day to day / To the last syllable of recorded time, / And all our yesterdays have lighted fools / The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!_--Macbeth (5.5.19-23), Macbeth.

* * *

"Death is your gift." As Buffy staked yet another fledgling vampire on yet another endless graveyard patrol, she pondered the words of the First Slayer. If death was her gift, was she supposed to receive it, or give it away? And was it something that would be welcomed by the recipient? She supposed, in a way, that dusting the vampires gave some sort of peace to the souls of the humans they once were. Watching your body maim, torture, and kill couldn't be a very pleasant way to spend the afterlife.

So, maybe it was a nice present, after all.


	32. Quixotic

  
_Title:_ **Quixotic**  
_Fandom:_ Buffy the Vampire Slayer  
_Rating:_ PG-13, I guess  
_Disclaimer:_ Not mine, they're Whedon's. sob  
_Written for:_ LJ Community Open on Sunday's "LJ mood" challenge  
_Notes:_ Remember this:  
_SPIKE: (quietly) Sometimes I envy you so much it chokes me. (He and Riley exchange a look) And sometimes I think I got the better deal. (sighs) To be that close to her and not have her. To be all alone even when you're holding her. Feeling her, feeling her beneath you. Surrounding you. The scent ... (louder) No, you got the better deal._

* * *

She'd left again, "virtue fluttering." Spike opened a bottle of whiskey and swallowed several mouthfuls, remembering the conversation he'd had with Captain Cardboard. About having Buffy without really having her. His poet's heart still ached. She didn't love him. She probably never would. "Soulless, evil thing." Who had the better deal back then? Spike now doubted that it was Riley.

The bottle flew across his crypt and shattered against the wall, and Spike laughed bitterly to himself. He would still tilt at the windmill of Buffy's heart, because it was what he did. But he would never envy Riley again.


	33. Resurrection

  
_Title:_ **Resurrection**   
_Fandom:_ Buffy the Vampire Slayer  
_Rating:_ PG-13  
_Words:_ 100  
_Disclaimer:_ Not mine; they're Whedon's. sob  
_Written for:_ LJ Community TV100's "Back from the Dead" challenge.  
_Notes:_ Takes place right at the end of BtVS #95, Season 5, "Forever." Dawn has attempted a resurrection spell. What if it had gone a bit differently? **WARNING:** Character death (besides the obvious, that is).

* * *

As Buffy and Dawn cried together, someone knocked on the door. "Buffy..." Dawn's voice trembled.

"Mom?" Buffy jumped up and ran to the door, flinging it open.

A disheveled Joyce stood on the porch, globs of earth matted in her hair. She pointed accusingly at Dawn, her fingernails broken, bleeding, and dirty. "You. You did this to me." She leaped across the room.

Dawn had time for one scream before Joyce snapped her neck. Joyce snatched the picture from her hand as she fell, tore it in half, and disappeared.

Frozen with shock, all Buffy could do was say, "Mommy?"


	34. No More Missed Goodbyes

  
_Title:_ **No More Missed Goodbyes**   
_Fandom:_ Buffy the Vampire Slayer  
_Rating:_ PG-13  
_Words:_ 100  
_Disclaimer:_ Not mine; they're Whedon's. sob  
_Written for:_ 's #47 "Lost Myself Again Today" challenge.  
_Notes:_ Post-Chosen.

* * *

He'd lost so much over the past seven years. Jesse, his best bud. No chance to say goodbye, only time to kill the thing his friend had become.

Cordelia. His first real girlfriend. Lost through betrayal. She'd left town...and now she was in a coma. No chance to say goodbye to her, either.

He'd just started patching things up with Anya. And she had been killed. No goodbye, take three.

And so he'd lost his mind. Catatonic, in the back of the bus, he wandered among the corridors of his soul with his fallen comrades. It was better there.


	35. Gone

  
_Title:_ **Gone**  
_Author:_ babies stole my dingo (agilebrit)  
_Fandom:_ Buffy the Vampire Slayer  
_Rating:_ PG  
_Disclaimer:_ Joss is the genius behind these characters; I am but a lowly follower. I make no money from any of this, so please don't sue me.  
_Written for:_ AppomattoxCO wanted something to cheer her up, with a pairing that had character who'd died. I don't think this fits the bill, because it's anything but cheerful. But, hey, I wrote it, and here it is.  
_Notes:_ A depressing post-Chosen flashfic. Buffy thinks about Spike.

* * *

Strong arms enfolding me in a protective embrace. Smell of leather, liquor, blood, and smoke. English accent murmuring rough endearments into my ear. Safe. Warm. Shielded. I didn't have to be General Buffy with him. I could just be...Buffy. He knew all about my fears, my insecurities, the panic I couldn't show the others. I'd never been able to hide anything from him, even when we were mortal enemies. And he didn't care that I wasn't perfect. He simply loved me.

And now he's gone. He's dust and ash at the bottom of the Hellmouth, and he won't be coming back, not this time. I've never contemplated a universe without him in it. He was always there, with a cigarette and a sarcastic remark. Pushing me to do things I should--and shouldn't--do. Alternately infuriating and charming, I could always count on him to say the exact right or the exact wrong thing.

And now he's gone. A world without Spike--it's like a world without air. I don't know how I still breathe. But I do. That seems wrong, somehow. I'm the Slayer. It's my job to die to save the world. Not his. He was supposed to go on forever. He was supposed to be there, watching over Dawn and the rest of the Scoobies, after I was dead. Watching over their kids, watching the grandkids grow up. Being the roguish uncle. That was his role.

And now he's gone.

And I don't know what to do.


	36. Scary Movie Night

  
_Title:_ **Scary Movie Night **  
_Author:_ babies stole my dingo (agilebrit)  
_Fandom:_ Buffy the Vampire Slayer  
_Rating:_ G  
_Length:_ Drabble (100 words)  
_Disclaimer:_ Joss is the genius behind these characters; I am but a lowly follower. I make no money from any of this, so please don't sue me.  
_Written for:_ Nothing in particular; just looking over my coughplot bunniescough trying to jump-start the creativity a bit. I think AppomattoxCO might have given me the original idea.

* * *

Anya curled up next to Xander as he pushed the "play" button on the remote, and the rest of the Scoobies arranged themselves around the living room, munching on the various snackage scattered at hand. Dawn frowned as the credits began rolling for "Harvey." "I thought it was supposed to be scary movie night," she said. "What's so scary about this?" 

Willow picked up the other movie boxes. "'Who Framed Roger Rabbit?' 'Watership Down'? 'Night of the Lepus'? 'Monty Python and the Holy Grail'? Who picked these?"

"Ahn..." Xander started.

"What?" she answered. "They're the scariest ones I could find."

* * *

_Notes:_ For my younger audience: "Harvey" is a classic movie with Jimmy Stewart about a man who is the only one who can see a six-foot tall invisible rabbit. "Watership Down" is animated, and based on the novel by the same name by Richard Adams, about a group of rabbits who abandon their doomed home and go searching for a new one. "Night of the Lepus" is a Z-grade horror flick about giant bunnies--and it was playing in the background on the TV in "The Matrix" in the Oracle's apartment. And of course everyone knows about the killer rabbit in "Monty Python and the Holy Grail." 


	37. Last Stand

  
_Title:_ **Last Stand**  
_Author:_ babies stole my dingo (agilebrit)  
_Fandom:_ Buffy the Vampire Slayer  
_Rating:_ PG-13  
_Length:_ Drabble (100 words)  
_Disclaimer:_ Joss is the genius behind these characters; I am but a lowly follower. I make no money from any of this, so please don't sue me.  
_Written for:_ LJ Community Open On Sunday's "Food/Eating" challenge.  
_Notes:_ Takes place during Buffy 3:22 "Graduation Day Part 2." Some dialogue cribbed directly from that ep, written by Joss Whedon.

* * *

"This...this is simply unacceptable!"

My Ascension is nearly complete, and the shriekings of an insect such as Principal Snyder will no longer be important.

"This is not orderly! This is not discipline!"

Were they ever important? My goodness, no wonder the students hate him so. He's very rude, isn't he?

"You're on my campus, buddy!" _His_ campus? I look down at him. He has quite some gall. I'm not one of his students, cowed into submission by his strident voice. "And when I say I want quiet, I want--"

What a bitter, astringent little man. He tastes like vinegar.


	38. Her Sounds

  
_Title:_ **Her Sounds**  
_Author:_ babies stole my dingo (agilebrit)  
_Fandom:_ Buffy the Vampire Slayer  
_Rating:_ PG-13  
_Length:_ Drabble (100 words)  
_Disclaimer:_ Joss is the genius behind these characters; I am but a lowly follower. I make no money from any of this, so please don't sue me.  
_Written for:_ LJ Community Open On Sunday's "Sound" challenge.  
_Notes:_ Spike contemplates the various noises Buffy makes. Set in S6.

* * *

The noises his Slayer makes are exquisite. Honestly, he could write poetry about them if he wanted to. The thuds and grunts as she trains, and when they spar in secret, are delicious. He loves her quips as she stakes a vampire or decapitates a demon. Her Valley-speak in casual conversation is--dare he say it--adorable. Her quiet pride when she talks about Dawn is palpable. Her moans as he holds her in his arms and makes love to her make unlife worth living.

Her cries of "Angel! Oh, Angel!"...

Well, no. That particular sound, he could live without.


	39. Summer Reading

  
_Title:_ **Summer Reading**  
_Author:_ babies stole my dingo (agilebrit)  
_Fandom:_ Buffy the Vampire Slayer  
_Rating:_ G  
_Length:_ Drabble (100 words)  
_Disclaimer:_ Joss is the genius behind these characters; I am but a lowly follower. I make no money from any of this, so please don't sue me.  
_Written for:_ InLoveWithNight, who requested Xander misunderstanding his English homework.  
_Notes:_ Takes place between S2 and S3, right before Senior Year.

* * *

"What did you pick for your summer reading, Will?" Xander asked.

Willow was practically bouncing. "I can't believe 'A Handmaid's Tale' is on the list! But I'm having trouble picking just one other one. I mean, there's so many good choices. How about you?"

"I picked 'Possession' as something appropriately Hellmouthy," he replied. Her lips twitched. "What?"

"You just read the titles, and not the summaries, didn't you?"

"Well, you know. Not much for reading at the best of times. Why?" he said with sudden trepidation.

She flounced off, tossing over her shoulder in a sing-song voice: "Xander's reading romance..."


	40. Heaven

  
_Title:_ **Heaven**  
_Author:_ babies stole my dingo (agilebrit)  
_Fandom:_ Buffy the Vampire Slayer  
_Rating:_ PG  
_Length:_ Drabble (100 words)  
_Disclaimer:_ Joss is the genius behind these characters; I am but a lowly follower. I make no money from any of this, so please don't sue me.  
_Written for:_ LJ Community TV100's "Falling" challenge.  
_Notes:_ Buffy's thoughts as she jumps off the tower in "The Gift," and afterwards.

* * *

I have to jump. A freaking dragon just flew out of the portal; God only knows what else will come through. If it doesn't get closed, the consequences don't bear thinking about.

I try to explain to Dawn. "The hardest thing in this world is to live in it." I don't know if she understands, but I turn, and run, and dive...

And now? My job is done. No more pressure, no more wondering if I'm doing the right thing, no more having to protect the world from the next Apocalypse.

"Well done, good and faithful servant." Completion at last.


	41. Unlikely Enemies

**Title:** Unlikely Enemies  
**Author:** babies stole my dingo (agilebrit)  
**Fandom:** Buffy the Vampire Slayer  
**Rating:** PG-13  
**Length:** Drabble (100 words)  
**Disclaimer:** Joss is the genius behind these characters; I am but a lowly follower. I make no money from any of this, so please don't sue me.  
**Written for:** LJ Community Open On Sunday's "Enemies" challenge.  
**Notes:** Set in Buffy S2 somewhere around "Becoming."

* * *

That sodding bloody wanker. Angelus really is more insane than poor mad Dru. A hundred years of eating rats has sent him right round the proverbial bend. They say I'm the impulsive one, but I never tried to suck the world into Hell, yeah? What are we going to eat if he does that? Don't know about him, but I'm rather fond of the occasional meal.

Unless he _wants _us to all go hungry and nutters. There's a lovely thought.

Unlife has come to a pretty pass when _I _have to make an ally of the damn Slayer.


	42. Priorities

**Title:** Priorities  
**Author: **babies stole my dingo (agilebrit)  
**Fandom:** Buffy the Vampire Slayer  
**Rating: **PG  
**Length: **Drabble (100 words)  
**Disclaimer: **Joss is the genius behind these characters; I am but a lowly follower. I make no money from any of this, so please don't sue me.  
**Written for: **LJ Community Open on Sunday's "Fathers" challenge.  
**Notes: **Hank Summers' POV, post-Chosen

* * *

Hank turned the news on and felt a cold clutch of fear claw his stomach. Massive earthquake in California, Sunnydale an impossibly deep crater...no known survivors.

He'd been remiss in keeping up with his daughters, he knew. Globetrotting around with the trophy wife, the parties he had to attend in order to maintain his business contacts, late nights, early mornings. Suddenly all that seemed irrelevant, faced with a world that didn't have Buffy and Dawn in it, somewhere.

He nearly sobbed with relief when his phone rang and he heard the voice on the other end. "Dad? We're okay."


End file.
